WASHINGTON, November 11 (Aalimi Nation) – The US House of Representatives voted 211-204 on Tuesday to refer a Republican lawmaker's resolution to impeach Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth to the Judiciary Committee, a procedural move that effectively ends the effort for the rest of the current Congress.
How the vote went
Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote against the motion, joining all House Democrats. Seven Republicans and 11 Democrats did not vote. Mr Massie had introduced eight articles of impeachment on the House floor on Monday.
The vote was on referral, not on whether Mr Hegseth should be impeached. Sending a resolution to a committee, which is unlikely to act on it, is a common way of setting it aside.
What the articles alleged
The articles cited Mr Hegseth's handling of the war with Iran, which is in its ninth month, and military strikes on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and the Pacific. They accused him of acting without the approval of Congress and of abusing his office. Mr Hegseth has said the operations were lawful and were ordered by President Donald Trump.
Reactions
At a news conference on Tuesday, Mr Hegseth called the effort a "political spectacle" and a "farce". "They're partisan policy disagreements from people who want to politicize our military," he said.
Mr Trump said on social media that the attempt had "miserably FAILED", although the resolution was brought by a member of his own party. Speaker Mike Johnson, who opposed the articles, said the House would "dispense with the impeachment gambit", according to published accounts of his remarks.
Mr Massie said he was not surprised by the outcome. "They just can't bring themselves to do it, even when it would benefit them politically," he said, in remarks reported after the vote. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat, said: "This is not the end of it. It's just the beginning."
Political background
Mr Massie lost his primary earlier this year to a challenger backed by Mr Trump and leaves Congress in January. Several Republicans have blamed the party's losses in the midterm elections partly on the Iran war and rising fuel prices, but many of them said Mr Hegseth's conduct did not meet the bar for impeachment.
Only two Cabinet secretaries have been impeached in US history: William Belknap, the Secretary of War, in 1876, and Alejandro Mayorkas, the Homeland Security Secretary, in 2024. The Senate acquitted Mr Belknap, and the charges against Mr Mayorkas were dismissed.
What happens next
Mr Massie said he would not bring another impeachment resolution against Mr Hegseth. He said he plans instead to force a vote on a war powers resolution on the Iran conflict, and will watch whether Republicans who blamed the war for their election setbacks support it.
Democrats, who won control of both chambers of Congress in the midterm elections, take over when the new Congress convenes on January 3. They could then revisit the question of impeaching Mr Hegseth, although the Senate would need a two-thirds majority to convict, a threshold that has never been met for a Cabinet official.
